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Culture and Review

  • 2 Nov 2011
    De-coding Mammon: money in need of redemption

    A review of a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology, submitted to the University of Exeter by Peter John Dominy

  • 30 Oct 2011
    St Paul's: Showing off, shutting out or showing up?

    Do the managers at St Paul's Cathedral have the stomach to engage in the real world at the crest of a tidal race between people, money and power? asks Bishop Alan Wilson. Or are they just overgrown public schoolboys playing indoor games in their own self-important Tourist Disneyland?

  • 1 Oct 2011
    Marriage: commitment, creativity and celebration

    Marriage. What’s it all about, then? In a sermon marking the wedding of two established friends of Ekklesia, Simon Barrow looks at the spiritual and social embeddedness which means that, in Bonhoeffer's words, “It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.”

  • 27 Sep 2011
    Dead Sea Scrolls online after high-tech photo process

    The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the world's oldest known biblical manuscripts, are now available online through a cooperative effort between the Israel Museum, where they are housed, and Google.

  • 27 Sep 2011
    Major theological online resource launched

    A unique and ambitious web-based theological resource has been launched in Geneva by the World Council of Churches and Globethics.net. It aims to redress a global imbalance of access to research materials in theology and related disciplines.

  • 21 Sep 2011
    'Culture wars', schools, science and religion

    The issue about creationism in schools is part of a wider set of misleadingly contructed arguments about religion and science, says Bob Carling. But ‘culture wars’ are often played out often by ignoring (or unfairly vilifying) those who take seriously the religious aspects of being human (and thus are theistic or agnostic) and who on the other hand take seriously the scientific evidence for evolution.

  • 17 Sep 2011
    Argentinians hold a 'month of the Bible'

    In Argentina, as in many Latin American countries, September is a month to celebrate the Bible. Churches coordinate lectures, workshops and conferences for youth.

  • 5 Sep 2011
    Kamal Salibi: A loss to Lebanon and the Arab intellectual world

    Dr Kamal Salibi, a renowned academic and historian, died suddenly in Beirut this week. Harry Hagopian reflects on his significance not just for his home country, but for the Arab world as a whole and for all concerned for the social, intellectual, religious and political culture of the Middle East.

  • 2 Sep 2011
    Musicology and philosophy, religion and political science

    Why it is that so few ‘secular’ scholars engage meaningfully with ‘religion’, wonders Michael Marten. Or to put it another way: why is it that so many religion scholars depend upon and practice disciplinary heterogeneity, whereas many of the scholars they use do not appear to engage substantially with what they write?

  • 22 Aug 2011
    Lithuanians strike a chord in Edinburgh

    Two top performers coming to Edinburgh are convinced that music can play a significant role in awakening the human spirit and bringing a longing for harmony and peace in a troubled world, writes Mary Anson.

  • 14 Jul 2011
    Religions as instruments of peace at Bossey

    Moving beyond tolerance of differences to appreciation is both the aim and the outcome of a 2011 summer course on 'Building an interfaith community' at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland. Theodore Gill of the World Council of Churches explains the background.

  • 13 Jul 2011
    Celebrating spirituality and peace after 9/11

    The Festival of Spirituality and Peace, which runs this year in Edinburgh from 6 - 29 August 2011, seeks to reawaken the heart of the Edinburgh festival for people who, ten years after 9/11, want to work together for a peaceful future. The director, Donald Reid, introduces its main theme.

  • 22 Jun 2011
    'Saving the Indians' souls' in colonial Peru

    Ethnohistorical and other studies show the great influence and power the historic Spanish mission had over the native population?s lives and souls in the Andean region, says Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar. At the same time as they document the missionaries' daily struggle to impose European ways of life onto other cultures, they also indicate that indigenous people were not only victims, but also agents in re-shaping their living conditions and their cultural identities.

  • 8 Jun 2011
    New York art exploration of 'The Man of Sorrows'

    An acclaimed exhibit ending a four-month run in New York City has given art lovers the chance to explore a single theme, Christ as the Man of Sorrows, and the Venetian artistic tradition that gave it full flowering.

  • 31 May 2011
    Pilgrims are returning to West Bank holy site

    Pilgrims are flowing back to the traditional site of Jesus' baptism on the Jordan River as Israel removes 40-year-old land mines. But barbed wire remains.